Resurgence
by skyline213
Summary: The history of the world is full of declines and resurgences. From the beginning of time, the world has watched the rise and fall of eras, the evolution of all creatures and the passing of the torch from one species to another. And now, another era approaches to dethrone the current. (A rewrite; I did a little spring cleaning recently.)


**Prologue****: Human **

Moonlight spilled into an isolated glade, painting all features with pale light. The darkened contours of rocks and vegetation were offset by the light that betrayed their presences, traced by the soft, gentle glow of the sickle moon. Rocky outcrops surrounded the clearing, where the trees grew in thick clusters, casting ominous shadows. The body of water fed by a narrow waterfall glittered, the perpetually disturbed water catching the rays of silver in a chaotic pattern of flashes and dimness.

The sound of footsteps and rustling could barely be heard over the clamor of the waterfall, a silhouette of a short figure appearing behind the foliage atop the outcrop. It picked its way down to the clearing, using the roots of a nearby tree to aid in its descent, and skirted the clearing soundlessly. The figure stopped near the waterfall and drew itself up, striding into the light.

The creature was distinctly cat-like, a pattern of black and tawny littering its coat among the white. Crouching, it inspected the pristine water in mild disgust. Claws tore at the soft earth, connected to the brown gloves that it sported, and amber eyes glared at the rapid stream leading to a relatively large pond at the center of the glade. Already, its coat glistened with tiny water droplets, a result of the exposure to the waterfall's mist, the airborne moisture accumulating on its marbled fur.

It narrowed its amber eyes, squinting while its head swiveled around as if looking for something in the darkness. "Of all places to meet, why near a waterfall...?" it muttered, voice recognizably female.

Straightening from her crouch, she scanned the area, a scowl overtaking her features. Her tufted ear twitched once.

She already knew why the rendezvous had to be near the cascade. The cataract made enough background noise that anyone who might have followed her would have a hard time eavesdropping on any conversation, no matter how unlikely. It was actually rather practical.

Unfortunately, she also had a bitter hate for water.

It was not that she had anything against the substance, it was just that she had plenty of bad experiences around and in water that she now associated it with bad luck. That, and the fact that it never seemed to agree with her at any given moment. The added weight was something she could go without, and she only dried after several or so hours. Just being around it was a pain.

The sky she stared at was as dark as a blot of ink on paper, and the shimmering clusters of stars scattered over the expanse, as though fragments of glittering ice had been strewn carelessly across black velvet. The stars glinted coldly, winking points of light amongst the dark. It was a sight that she would not have seen in the human world, that was for certain. There was too much smog to actually see, even on a windy night after a long bout of rain. Even then, there was no real way to differentiate between aircraft and the celestial bodies; it almost seemed like an extinct fable from a children's bedtime story. How she knew exactly...

She shook her head and sighed. At least then, it was something that provided some excitement to her otherwise mundane life, a rarity. But now, it was as common as grass, and it seemed as though a thousand cold eyes were boring into her rather than the ethereal glimmer of a few and far between. Back then, a warm feeling had suffused her at the sight of a star, yet now she felt nothing more than a prickle of paranoia crawl up her spine. Strange how her reaction had become inverted. The contrast was unimaginably staggering.

But she wasn't there just to stargaze; she came because of an odd encounter from the other day.

She placed her paws on her narrow hips and her mouth flattened in staunch discontent. She didn't even know who she was meeting, all she got was a message from a particularly equivocal Baromon who gave her directions to the waterfall. Being slightly paranoid, she initially opted to ignore it, but when he mentioned something about her niece, she had nearly mauled him for the sake of extracting information from him. If there was one thing that elevated her ire, it was mention of her niece.

Even when she threatened him, he hadn't cringed like she assumed he would, and for that he had lived, if only because she admired such mettle. Instead of begging for his life as some previous examples, he had calmly relayed the directions to the waterfall and the instructions on which course of action to take when she did get there. He had really been presumptuous enough to assume that she'd follow his whim.

But... she was here now, so it probably meant something to her after all. Who wouldn't, though? The implication of seeing someone who you haven't seen for many years was simply too great an opportunity to pass up.

Even if it meant playing into the hands of someone who likely had a price on your head.

Thinking about it now, she had neither seen nor heard of her niece for six long years. Though she forgave herself for not noticing, as that tends to happen when one is literally worlds apart, not that she knew of any other example to compare her experience with.

Discussing her own niece with Baromon had truly rattled her. It left chaotic emotions writhing in her gut like she hadn't experienced for a long time. Swaying between hope and doubt, she had been driven up the wall by the old feelings she threw away, the feelings that were coming back with a renewed acuity.

Still...

Now that she thought about it, anyone else could have fed him the information to manipulate her, which was an implication that she loathed. Over the years, she had made plenty of enemies, enemies that she wouldn't have even dreamed of making in her previous life. How quickly such matters change...

Then again... Baromon were fairly well known as clairvoyants, if not somewhat inept in controlling the ability; it is possible that he had a vague knowledge of such matters through her own psyche. But there is no way to prove it without actually asking him, and that ship had already sailed long ago.

And now here she was, standing near some dreadful rapids, shifting from foot to foot anxiously while pondering on events beyond her ken.

Wind whisked by her, raking chilly fingers through the leaves of the surrounding trees. But the noise of the cascade drowned out the cutting hiss of rustling leaves. The wind tickled the insides of her ears, inciting her to shake her head irritably.

Remembering the Baromon's instructions, she regarded the cascade in distaste. Apparently, it wasn't enough that she was near a waterfall, but now she had to go _through_ it, too.

"Someone's going to die tonight," she growled. It wasn't a lie, she felt murderously ill-tempered at the moment; the water put her on edge.

Backing up a few steps, she made a running start and vaulted herself forward, toward the cascade. She could have sworn that a force equivalent to a speeding train battered her back as she did so, jabbing thousands of uncomfortable needles where the water struck her forcefully. It surprised her that it didn't slam her into the river itself. Then again, nothing was as it seemed in this world.

For a moment, she sailed through nothing but air before folding her body in on itself, her upper back hitting the ground almost painfully as she maneuvered herself into a roll.

Standing, she winced. Her landing had been awkward, and she had no doubts that she would have a few bruises on her back in due time.

Padding deeper into the dark cavity that she leaped into, the feline searched the area for anything that the Baromon had described. At the moment, she was thankful that her eyesight was much sharper than that of a human's as she scanned the rocky cavern, her tufted ears twitching at the sound of water dripping. The plink of water striking water echoed throughout the vast, dark space.

"He did say something about crystal," she mumbled to herself, wrinkling her nose at the musty smell that permeated the cave. Wandering forth, she cautiously surveyed the area, eyes flickering nervously to either side. "If this is all an elaborate trap, the first person I'm hounding is him," she decided out loud.

A smile cut across her face at the very thought. Tracking down the Baromon would probably prove to be difficult, considering he may just see her coming and run in the opposite direction. But he may also just wait for her if his unpredictability was something to go by. Baromon were strange, as many mediums tended to be. She would be surprised if he did something a normal Digimon might do if they saw her coming.

Mid-step, her foot snagged on something and she lost balance. With a yelp, she pitched forward, throwing her paws out to avoid landing on her face.

Winded and gasping, she rolled into a crouching position. When she glanced around frantically to see what she tripped on, she found that it was a growth of the crystal she had been informed of. Clusters of translucent, opaque gray crystals protruded from the stone floor of the cave, providing the sudden shift in elevation that tripped her. She was only surprised—and grateful—that the spire-like tips that jutted out didn't give her any lacerations.

Huffing with an expression of annoyance, she stood and dusted herself off, looking down at herself in disgust. The dive through the waterfall had soaked her from head to toe, the water weighing down her pelt and making her movements a tad sluggish due to being unaccustomed to the added weight. Bits of loose grit and lichen clung to her persistently, and when she tried to brush them away, more just rubbed off on her fur from her paw.

Swiveling her head, she rasped her tongue experimentally along her narrow shoulder, spitting out the grit that she cleaned off. After that, she gave up trying to groom herself, focusing instead on the crystal.

"Curious," she mused quietly to herself as she tapped it. The crystal emitted a pleasant sound when she flicked her claw against it, a high, clear note ringing throughout the cave from the impact. "Nice sound."

But that wasn't she was really interested in.

Laying her paw flat against the smooth surface of a facet, small tendrils of twisting, glowing energy seeped into the cold, glass-like material where she touched it. Almost as though the crystal extracted that energy from her. She snatched her paw away in alarm. At the absence of contact, the glow evanesced, the lazy wisps fading into the grayness of the crystal itself. Inspecting her paw distrustfully to make sure she hadn't injured herself, she found to her relief that it she hadn't received any form of detriment.

Agog, she narrowed her eyes as she leveled a suspicious leer at the darkening growth of mineral, then looked back down at her paw again. To her surprise, her paw flickered briefly into a phantom of a human hand before fading away. The feline tilted her paw from side to side.

"That's interesting," she murmured, curling her paw in on itself. She lifted her gaze to the crystal once more, her ears splaying back as her brows descended over her amber eyes in a visage of indecision. She tapped the semi-clear substance with the tip of one claw. That time, the tongue of fiery energy snaked through the translucent stone, stronger in light that time. Her touch must have activated it in some way.

With many misgivings and much skepticism, she pressed her paw against it again. Pale topaz energy spread out from where she touched it, creating shifting veins of gentle light flowing through the substance. It fanned out through the entirety of the crystal, turning it into the hue of jasmine.

"Good," a distinctly male voice rumbled, resonating, sonorous, the depth of it sending vibrations through the crystal. She jumped, taken by surprise. "I see you got the message."

"If I didn't, I wouldn't be in this damp hellhole," she snapped irately. She folded her arms in a reserved manner, her eyes hard and flinty. "What have you done to my niece? Tell me while I still have the patience to listen."

"Relax, child," the voice soothed. "I have done nothing to your niece. Nothing harmful, that is. All will be explained in due time."

She was silent for a moment. When she finally spoke, her voice was as cold as frozen steel. "I'm not a child anymore, and as such I would prefer that you refer to me as Mikemon."

"Be that as it may, you will always be a child to me." He chirred in amusement. "After all, you would not exist in this world without me, dear."

Her ears swiveled back, pinned flat against her skull. "Call me 'dear' again," she said acidly, baring her teeth in a hint of a snarl, "and I'll carve out your tongue to silence your snide remarks."

"I see your scintillating attitude runs in your family," came the sarcastic observation.

Mikemon gave a short, ill-tempered snort. "No one has ever accused us of being well-mannered. Every one of us is like that. Except for my niece, of course. She's too Japanese."

"Doth I hear disapproval? Of politeness? I see your family is very backward indeed. Madder than anyone else, I can safely assume."

"Mad?" Mikemon tilted her ears, her amber eyes languidly glancing at the glowing crystal. "Who says we're mad? Would it be safe to assume that you're mad too if you were the one who resurrected a dead madwoman?"

"... Though it is the truth, is it not?" She was a little confused by his strange query, casting a perplexed glance at the cluster of spire-like crystals. It didn't exactly seem to fit the context of their conversation; perhaps he simply ignored her response. "You do indeed possess a greater bravado than anything I have encountered, and that makes you interesting. Tell me: do you feel uncomfortable with the thought that your existence would not be if I had not decided to save you?" He seemed somewhat thoughtful as he spoke. "It is strange how such a small decision on my part impacts you significantly."

"Cut the garbage."

"Well, _Mikemon_..." She didn't like the tone of voice he had when he enunciated her name. "Are you sure that no one followed you, that there's little possibility our discussion will be subject to prying ears?" he asked.

"You dare to doubt me?" she asked softly, malice meticulously hidden beneath her wounded tone. "You insult me."

"I hardly believe that you are offended," replied the unseen stranger flatly. Suspicion colored his tone as he added, "But you should be careful about what you say. One might say you sound as if you are hiding something."

"Coming from the one who sent a go-between to set this up and won't meet me face-to-face."

"Caution comes before propriety, as you well know."

"Perhaps, but you ought to be careful. One might say that your actions are that of cowardice." She smirked at having been able to reiterate his own words against him.

"Mikemon," he sighed, sounding weary in the way a grandfather would be of a wayward child. "I am persecuted by the Royal Knights, feared even more than Seven Demon Lords, and yet you expect me to be forthright from the very beginning. How sad - I thought you would have known better by now." His derisive chuckles made the light in the crystal pulse. "You are still as naive as I remember, dear."

The feline felt her hackles rise as trepidation and anger swirled in her chest. His patronizing attitude rubbed her the wrong way; it irked her. But at the same time, there was a dark sort of self-assurance beneath his arrogance, as if he knew something she didn't.

She hated this.

"You haven't given me many bases on which I can actually believe you," Mikemon bit back. It wasn't exactly the comeback she had in mind...

"Fine. Then we have something to work towards."

Mikemon snapped her head around to glare directly at the crystal, as though her glare could somehow reach her anonymous contact on the other side of the communiqué.

"'We'?" she practically spat, her ears laying flat on her skull irascibly. Her fur stood on end and her pupils constricted into angry slits. "What's with the 'we'? There's no 'we' and there will _never_ be one. Leave me _alone_!"

"I am afraid I cannot do that," he said darkly, chuckling ominously. The light within the crystal fluctuated with his soft, rumbling laughter. "You see, your fates have been sealed long ago. There is no escaping from this now."

She bristled, responding haughtily, "Is there, now?"

"Enough, fleabag." An irritated hiss was all she would offer in lieu of wording her opinion on that derogatory title. "I did not contact you just to argue about such trifles. I have a proposal that you may find interesting."

"Well, I've spoken to you for all of five minutes," she said, more petulantly than she intended, "and I'm already bored with your rabble."

"If you wait for another minute, you will not be so disinterested," he replied calmly.

She narrowed her amber eyes, but she said nothing. Her ear twitched. Her mind spun with countless questions. Could she trust this creature? Did he know what happened to her niece? What use would she be in his plot? What did he have planned for her? All of these questions, clashing with one another in Mikemon's mind, mingled into one, a huge monolith of ambivalence made up of those issues and more.

Absently, she examined her surroundings, staring at the interplay of light and shadow along the uneven surface of the walls. A spark of hope fluttered in her breast, though, brushing her being like feather-light gossamer. It had been so long since she felt such a fragile, fleeting feeling that it felt foreign to her. She had lost hope long ago in the desolation of the more severe Digital World. Perhaps, Mikemon thought, if this offer were enough to spark something she lost ten years ago, she could take a chance.

The problem lay within herself, though. She no longer knew who or what to trust anymore, no longer knew what was real and what was not. Looking back, everything that happened all those years ago seemed to be a distant dream, an illusion of reality. No, not an 'illusion', but more like seeing reality through murky water. Obscure, deceitful, untrue.

"... How can I trust you?" she asked, barely managing to disguise the sneer in her voice.

"You cannot," he replied flatly. "Not fully anyways. Not until I can give you evidence and reason. If you will lend me just five minutes of your precious time," that was where she detected the biting, satirical ring in his voice, "I will give you sound reason to trust me."

Mikemon placed her paws on her hips. "... I'll give you two," she shot back coldly.

For a few long seconds, the voice didn't answer, leading her to believe that he might have been scrambling for a quick explanation. Her ear twitched at the sound of water dripping, catching the thread of the faint echoes that resounded throughout the cave. The tension was so thick in the air she could almost taste it, anxiety eating at her insides as she waited for his response.

Then he said something so unexpected—despite the obvious reluctance—that she took a step back in shock. "Thank you..."

"If you don't want to say it, you don't have to," she said icily, only just starting to recover from her surprise. "I would prefer an insult rather than an insincere word of gratitude."

He sighed in vexation. "You cannot even take gratitude with grace."

"Not if it's a mere façade."

"I can give you every assurance that it is not a façade. Just hear me out."

Mikemon rolled her eyes with a scoff. "Don't waste your time. I said that I'd only give you two minutes."

"... Two minutes can seem like a long time."

She recoiled. His words were an echo of her thoughts in the finite moments her previous life ended. Regaining her composure, she grudgingly nodded, folding her arms again. Trying to sink back into her mask of calm, Mikemon sighed. It wasn't easy, attempting to school her features back to the indifferent visage she had possessed before this conversation.

A faint, fragile spark of hope fluttered in her chest. Why? After all those years she spent wandering in the desolation of her despair, why did the hope return? What was it that she was hoping for? What was going on with her chaotic emotions?

All of these questions, incomplete, confused and frustrated, whirled in her mind. But then something clicked, and her stirring emotions suddenly made sense. It was a stark as the cave.

She felt human.

* * *

><p><em>If there's one thing that I really love, it's enigmas. I won't be updating for a while as I work on the story this prequel is based on, but I will get back to it! I love it too much to part with it!<em>

_Please R&R! It would be very helpful. :)_


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